Shugyosha

I guess the egg is heading my way... This is my stab at translating the first paper, unfortunately I can't find anything to shed light on the mystery of the interesting signature on the back. Some parts were a bit tricky, and I've done my best with them but they are beyond my skill to render into English. 波濤猛禽図鐔 Waves, billows, bird of prey themed tsuba. 銘 延寿作 Mei: Nobu Toshi Saku (葵紋) 康継 (Aoi mon) Yasu Tsugu 竪形丸 Tate marugata Stretched circular form? (表) (Omote) 鉄石目地 Tetsu ishime ji Iron stone finished ground. 鋤出彫 Tsuki de bori Dug out carving? 金象嵌 Kin zogan Gold inlay 鋤残耳 Sukizan mimi Obviously refers to the rim and uses the kanji for "dug" or "ploughed" (鋤) seen above. 残 = leave, remain, stay, reserve. It might make more sense with the tsuba in hand. 裏 Ura 磨地毛彫 Migaki ji kebori Polished ground, kebori carving. Best regards, John

Maybe a badly inscribed 継 tsugu for the Myochin tsuba but using the old "thread" radical - for some reason it gets changed whenever I copy and paste. That said, there's nothing in Haynes for a Munetsugu written that way...

Hi Mark, For me the corrosion around the mono uchi area looks too deep to polish out satisfactorily but that's not an expert view. There's this guy, Andrew Ickeringill, in Melbourne but I don't know anything about him: https://touken-togishi.com/ Perhaps some Aussie members can give you a view. Best, John

Hi Ed, Here's a bit more: 造り 込み: 鎬造り庵棟 Tsukurikomi: Shinogi zukuri, iori mune 鍛: 小板 目錬れる Kitae: Ko itame nereru (wrought/ forged) 刃紋:中直ぐ刃 Hamon: Chu suguba 鋩子: 直ぐ? 小刃返り Boshi: sugu? Ko maru kaeri 彫刻: Carving: This is where I start to lose it. There's reference to a lotus [蓮] which I can see on the blade. Also the part that follows on at the bottom of this section and turns the corner refers to Hachiman Dai Bosatsu [ 八幡大勒] but I can't do anything with the kanji and kana around it. I hope that helps and that someone can fill in the remainder for you. Best, John

Sorry Peter and Peter, I should have read to the top of the thread. Kind regards, John

Hi Peter, I'm sorry but I can't see your "yama" ( 山) I can see a serial number five thousand, six hundred and thirteen then the "ban" kanji 番 and then three further kanji, the first two of which I think are Hiroshima (廣島) but I can't get the third one. Best, John

What Matt said, from Markus Sesko's E Japanese Swordsmiths: KANENAKA (兼中), Tenna (天和, 1681-1684), Echizen – “Musashi no Kami Fujiwara Kanenaka – Echizen-jū” (武蔵守藤原兼中・越前住), “Kanenaka” (兼中), “Yamamoto Musashi no Kami Fujiwara Kanenaka” (山本武蔵守 藤原兼中), he signed his name also with the characters (兼仲), he lived in Ichijō (一乗) in Echizen province but moved later to Edo, his workmanship is similar to that of Harima no Daijō Shigetaka (播磨大掾 重高), gunome-midare, wazamono, chūjō-saku I don't think you would describe the hamon on your sword as sanbonsugu. It looks more like a mixture of gunome and choji midare to me but others may have different views. Anyhow, looks like a nice sword - I'd do my best to borrow it for a very long time if I were you. 80) Best, John

Hi Jon, Your post tells me that you know more about this than you are letting on as you would have had to do some research to glean some of the information in there. The signature reads Bishu Osa... which is basically what you said. Bishu is an old name for Bizen province in Japan. Osafune was a village that was significant in making swords prior to around 1600 when it was wiped out by a flood. Swords made there varied in quality from high-output low quality blades made to feed the needs of the wars of that time to masterpieces. As you are probably aware, if the mekugi ana nearest the nakago jiri was punched rather than drilled it probably dates the sword prior to 1600 but you need to post some detail of the hardened edge, the steel's grain pattern and the area around the point of the sword if you want a better view on its likely quality. Swords changed their clothes fairly regularly and it isn't likely that these are the blade's original set. The fittings on the handle don't look to be particularly high quality but these probably aren't original to the set: I get the feeling that they may have been good but they have been stripped out and sold separately. Likewise the tsuba. If I have that right it means that someone has had a pretty good look at the blade and concluded that it was lower quality and that it made better economic sense to sell these bits separately. It's hard to put these into a time frame but they may be Edo period but could be later. Sword blades' curvature, whilst not individually unique, makes it harder to sell a scabbard on to fit a different blade. This scabbard, however, does look like it has had some care taken in its manufacture, though it has seen better times. Incorporating the pieces of shell in the laquer is a time consuming job and that is an indicator of better quality but the availability of time indicates that it wasn't made in the sengoku period so it's probably Edo period. All of this is my honest opinion and that of a nice bottle of Argentinian Malbec. You may well get better opinions than mine. Sorry to repeat what Geraint has said but his reply came in whilst I was typing but again, welcome to NMB and the surprisingly addictive world of Japanese swords. Kind regards, John

Sorry, the romantic bit of me was thinking hidden message but as usual the sound of hooves is normally a horse and not a zebra.

It looks like I'm alone in wanting to see the paper.

Hi Dave, I think Neil summed it up pretty neatly. A couple of other observations: it looks like the kissaki has had quite a bit of reworking as it seems that the boshi runs very close to the edge and there is no turn back. Also, I think I can see yakidashi which, if I'm correct would put the sword into the shinto period but, as Neil pointed out, it's difficult to see the true crystaline structure of the nioi guchi in the photographs and it's necessary to differentiate between this what has been put there by the polisher. Best, John

Yes - that one could be my one sword collection. Absolutely gorgeous.

Hi Sylvain, No, it's a description of the tsuba: 撫角形 Nade Kaku Gata elongated square shape 鉄槌目地 Tetsu tsuchime Ji hammered iron ground 刻印打込 Kizamu Jirushi uchi komu including cut, hammered, stamp 打返耳 Uchi kaeshi mimi hammered back rim. Best regards, John

Hi Ben, Looks like an interesting pick up. The patina on the tang does suggest a koto blade to me. Is there a second mekugi ana near the nakago jiri that has been filled in? I can't make my mind up as to whether it is just a blemish on the tang but it does seem to have a corresponding one on the other side. If so, then that might give an indication of the original length of the blade and a clue as to whether your uchigatana description holds up, however, another element that might be of interest is the blade's curvature. I may be imagining some koshizori but that might be due to the osuriage having altered it's appearance or due to my wall eye. Koshizori would point towards a tachi rather than an uchigatana I feel but I could easily have that bit wrong. Anyhow, far more interesting than the average bringback blade and I'm sure you'll get some more informed comments than mine shortly. Kind regards, John

Hi Charlie, IJA fittings but an old blade methinks: 越州敦賀下総守宗吉 Esshu Tsuruga Shimosa Kami MuneYoshi. Luckily there is only one smith awarded the Shimosa Kami title and this is him: MUNEYOSHI (宗吉), 1st gen., Keichō (慶長, 1596-1615), Echizen – “Echizen Tsuruga-jū Shimōsa no Kami Fujiwara Muneyoshi tsukuru” (越前敦賀住下総守藤原宗吉造), “Echizen no Kuni Tsuruga-jū Shimōsa no Kami Fujiwara Ason Muneyoshi” (越前国敦賀住下総守藤原朝臣宗吉), dense mokume, suguha, gunome-midare, wazamono, chūjō-saku Best, John

Fuller and Gregory says that the "Tan" or "Kitau" (forged) stamp was used on sword blades probably to indicate a hand-forged blade. Based on Bruce's reading and going from right to left and top to bottom I got Shiyu Yamamasa or an alternative for Yamamasa would be Sansei (Sanzei) but got no hits on Google using these names in the context of military dirks. Best, John

Hi Marius, The signature is: 志津三郎兼氏 Shizu saburo kane uji. Mmmm...probably not by this well-known Mino swordsmith working in the 1330s, but it's not unusual for kogatana to have the signature of someone who didn't make them. Best, John

I think Uwe is right with this. The problem is that (I believe) the kanji are in seal script so not easy to tie back to the normal kaisho script. I think bottom left may be 止 but I can't do much more than this. To be honest, I'm not even sure which way up it should go.

Hi Gasam, There's one on Aoi Art: http://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-mumei-there-is-a-signaturebishu-osafune-sukesada-on-the-blade And there's another wakizashi with unusual sugata on Nihontocraft: http://www.nihontocraft.com/Yoshitake_Katakiriba.htm Best, John

The mei is Echizen Kami Naomasa. It's dated but I can't make out the nengo era. The trident- like horimino is a vajra - a lightening bolt wielded by the god Indra. I've not seen the wave shape added on before. I've no idea if the mei is good - sorry. Best, John

Brian, Just so I'm clear, what is the rule where something is wrongly described? Are we allowed to correct an error? Best, John

Hi Oli, That's definitely a keeper: with a hole in it that big you'll be stuck with it. Please take the advice offered there are far better swords available for only a little more money (and sometimes for less!). Keep an eye on the sales section on NMB or even put a request in the wanted section setting out what you are looking for. You'll do far better. Best, John

Hi Rob, Truthfully, I don't have an answer as I suspect there were a variety of factors at play. A book that you might find interesting is Japanese spears: Polearms and their use in old Japan by Roald Knutsen. Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Spears-Polearms-Their-Japan/dp/1901903567 Best, John

Hi Bruce, Something to get you going. On the first sheet, first column: 品目 Hinmoku Item 造兵刀 Army sword Production (not sure of this translation) 現代鍛錬刀 Gendai tanren gatana Modern training sword 九五式軍刀 Type 95 gunto 三五年式銃剣 1935 model rifle bayonet 九九式小銃 99 model short rifle 一00式機関短銃 100 model sub machine gun 八九式????筒 89 model grenade launcher 九九式??関銃 99 model light machine gun Along the top, I can't get anything for the first two columns but after that it's a list of months from April to March with 計,Kei = Total in the final column. There are some kanji I can't get and some that Google supplied. If anyone spots any errors, I'm happy for them to be corrected. Kind regards, John

Wow - custom order blade too - usually the smith's best work. Experiencing sword envy right now...